Facebook Takes a Shot at LinkedIn

It's aiming to wrest some lucrative job search business

LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) has revolutionized the recruiting market with its focus on social networking. That stragegy has succeeded in giving the company a market cap of $10.9 billion.

But Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) wants to get a piece of that action. To this end, the consumer-oriented social network company on Wednesday launched the Social Jobs Partnership app. It’s a fairly simple system that allows for job searching on industries, locations and keywords. Facebook has also partnered with companies like Monster Worldwide (NYSE:MWW), Jobvite and BranchOut.

Consider that according to the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE), about half of employers use Facebook for hiring decisions. So, having an app is definitely a smart move — and more important, it could ultimately become another nice revenue stream for Facebook.

Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPOPlaybook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He is also the author of “How to Create the Next Facebook.” Follow him on Twitter at@ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Based in Silicon Valley, Tom Taulli is in the heart of IPO land. On a regular basis, he talks with many of the top tech CEOs and founders trying to find the next hot deals and finding out which start-ups are stinkers.

A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.

Tom is routinely quoted in the media about upcoming deals with his interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, but he is eager to take your questions too. You can message him on Twitter at @ttaulli. And feel free to weigh in via the comments section on any of his IPO Playbook posts.